“ "The most exciting aspect of the work
is that there is no external data that we plug in,"
Marinoni told SPACE.com, meaning that their findings
aren't dependent on other calculations that could be
flawed.”

“A new generation of much more sophisticated
and lifelike prosthetic arms, sponsored by the Department
of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA), may be available within the next five to 10
years. Two different prototypes that move with the dexterity
of a natural limb and can theoretically be controlled
just as intuitively--with electrical signals recorded
directly from the brain--are now beginning human tests.”

“ReNeuron’s ReN001 cell therapy for stroke
consists of a neural stem cell line, designated CTX,
which has been generated using the Company’s proprietary
cell expansion and cell selection technologies and then
taken through a full manufacturing scale-up and quality-testing
process. As such, ReN001 is a standardised, clinical
and commercial-grade cell therapy product capable of
treating all eligible patients presenting.

“ReN001 has been shown to reverse the functional
deficits associated with stroke disability when administered
several weeks after the stroke event in relevant pre-clinical
models of the condition. Extensive pre-clinical testing
also indicates that the therapy is safe, with the ReN001
cells eventually cleared from the body with no adverse
safety effects arising.

“In the PISCES Phase I trial, a total of 12 patients
will receive the ReN001 therapy between 6 and 24 months
after their stroke. If ultimately shown to be safe and
effective clinically, ReN001 would therefore offer a
significant new treatment option for stroke survivors.
The therapy offers the potential for a degree of recovery
of function in disabled stroke patients, resulting in
greater independence and quality of life for these patients
and reduced reliance on health and social care systems.

“The ReN001 cells that are being used in the
initial clinical trial are taken from the existing manufactured
cell banks that will form the basis of the eventual
marketed product. There will therefore be no need to
re-derive and test new ReN001 cell lines for subsequent
clinical trials or for the market – all such cells
can simply be expanded from the existing banked and
tested product.”

From R2’s
Twitter feed, “I’m living on the station
as long as there is a station. ISS 4 LIFE!”

Robonaut R2. Image: NASA

“Robonaut 2 or R2, will launch to the International
Space Station on space shuttle Discovery as part of
the STS-133 mission, it will become the first dexterous
humanoid robot in space, and the first US-built robot
at the space station. But that will be just one small
step for a robot and one giant leap for robot-kind.”
—
“The dexterity of R2 allows it to use the same
tools that astronauts currently use and removes the
need for specialized tools just for robots.

“One advantage of a humanoid design is that Robonaut
can take over simple, repetitive, or especially dangerous
tasks on places such as the International Space Station.
Because R2 is approaching human dexterity, tasks such
as changing out an air filter can be performed without
modifications to the existing design.”

“Google consulted with the engineers that have
made such a success of the DARPA Challenges, which have
been honing the state of the automated vehicle art for
several years. The Toyotas in question have logged 140,000
total miles and have just had a single accident, which
occurred when a human driver rear-ended a Google Prius.
The array of hardware and software used in this automated
fleet is very impressive, but most estimates say that
adoption of this technology is still a long way off,
with guesses ranging from 8 years to never.”

7/9/10
We are still a bit rattled as we had a couple of big aftershocks
last night. Up to 5.4. Neither of us was sleeping properly
when it came, and it didn't help. B. decided we should move
to the spare room as the chimney can't fall on us there. The
chimney has loosened up a bit, so we are getting someone to
take it down in the next couple of days, and fill in the hole
with tiles. At some point we will then put a flue back in
so we can use the wood burner.

Crack in an Avonside Park footpath.

B.'s mum C. was getting so jittery that she was transported
off by dad to some relatives in Nelson to calm down. I am
trying to calm down so I can have a better night's sleep (and
B. too). The reality is (as the boss H. loves to say) we are
safe. If a big shaking starts, then we will move from wherever
we are to a doorway. It will be an inconvenience, as I have
already started to put things back in cupboards and they could
fall down and break things. The chimney coming down would
also be an inconvenience but it is not likely to, like most
of the people in Christchurch, we will be alright. No one
has died, there were just two life threatening injuries. Just
have to wait for the grumpy old giant to stop rolling over
and go back to sleep!

A pump shifted out of the ground

The pictures on the news do show the worst problems, but
on the whole the city is functioning pretty well. Talking
of giants, the one that woke up was a
small fault that no scientist knew about 30km from
Christchurch.

The fault that ruptured the surface of Canterbury paddocks and produced
the magnitude 7.1 earthquake has been quiet for at least 16,000 years.
[Quoted from nz.herald.co.nz]

8/9/10
I found it hard to sleep after another shock at 1am
this morning, then there was a big one at 7:49. The
office has stayed closed again, so I have gone over
to stay with one of my work colleagues, K., rather than
stay alone in the house. K. was surprised at the damaged
roads in our neigbourhood, which is another example
of large areas being relatively ok, while others are
a bit munted as they say over here.

“What they found shocked them. The further
back they looked with the VLT, the larger alpha seemed
to be—in seeming contradiction to the result
they had obtained with the Keck. They realised, however,
that there was a crucial difference between the two
telescopes: because they are in different hemispheres,
they are pointing in opposite directions. Alpha, therefore,
is not changing with time; it is varying through space.
When they analysed the data from both telescopes in
this way, they found a great arc across the sky. Along
this arc, the value of alpha changes smoothly, being
smaller in one direction and larger in the other.
The researchers calculate that there is less than
a 1% chance such an effect could arise at random.
Furthermore, six of the quasars were observed with
both telescopes, allowing them to get an additional
handle on their errors.”

“Andrew Heymsfield of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research and colleagues flew a research
plane through the snow produced by a hole-punch cloud
west of Denver International Airport in 2007. The plane
was loaded with instruments for studying how ice forms
in clouds. Radar from the ground picked up a strange
echo in their wake, indicating oddly-shaped snowflakes.

“ “We didn’t know it, but we went
right through this precipitation feature that was spotted
from the ground,” Heymsfield said. Video from
the flight showed a hole in a patch of altocumulus clouds
(see below), and two inches of snowfall directly below
the hole.

“Heymsfield and colleagues examined flight records
for the nearby airport and linked the hole and the snow
to two commercial turboprop aircraft that had taken
off about an hour before. The movement of supercooled
water droplets over the planes’ propellers cooled
them enough to make them freeze and plunge to Earth
as snowflakes, Heymsfield said. Normally, snowflakes
or raindrops need a speck of dust or another imperfection
to form around. But supercooled water can freeze instantly,
if it cools quickly to around minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit.”